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Cataphractii Pattern Terminator Armour
Legion Veteran Assault Terminator in Cataphractii Pattern Terminator Armour]] Cataphractii Pattern Terminator Armour was originally a prototype for the later patterns of Terminator Armour first used by the Space Marine Legions and the warriors of the Legio Custodes throughout the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy eras. Whilst similar in many respects to the standard Indomitus Pattern Terminator Armour used by the Adeptus Astartes of the late 41st Millennium, it was set apart by a number of features such as the large, layered pauldrons, the pteruges protecting the elbow and thigh joints, and a helmet that resembled that used by the Mark III Iron Pattern suit of Power Armour. Although the use of the Cataphractii Pattern was rare before the Horus Heresy, some Legions, such as the Sons of Horus and the Iron Hands, possessed a large number of these suits. The Iron Hands Legion passed on these suits to their Successor Chapters during the Second Founding of the early 31st Millennium. History The technology for Exo-armour was originally developed during Mankind's Dark Age of Technology. These sealed environment suits enabled maintenance crews of spacecraft to operate in extremely hazardous environments such as hard vacuum or in other adverse atmospheric conditions. During the Great Crusade era of the late 30th and early 31st Millennia, the Mechanicum was receiving a steady influx of new and rediscovered technologies from each planet brought to Imperial Compliance. In an effort to stem the horrendous loss of Legionary lives resulting from the ferocious conquests, the Mechanicum attempted to design the "ultimate" pattern of Power Armour which would render a Space Marine virtually invulnerable. The design emerged from a hybrid of standard Legionary Power Armour, the cybernetic shell of a Dreadnought and the armoured hostile environment suits long worn by Terran engineers who worked in difficult environments like debris-plagued orbital space and the radioactive engine cores of interstellar spacecraft. Tactical Dreadnought Armour, as it was called, would turn the Astartes warrior within it into a living tank. The eventual result of the Mechanicum's travails was only a partial success: the first suits of Terminator Armour did, as intended, afford a level of protection previously unattainable for its wearer. Like Power Armour, these suits were equipped with fibre-bundle synthetic muscles and imposed few movement restrictions upon the wearer despite their immense weight. But they were also too bulky, and their massive weight made running difficult despite built-in auto-balancers. The suits suffered from voracious power demands and few existing armaments could be carried as the armour's sheer bulk made handling and reloading impossible. But most importantly, the sheer amounts of raw materials and manpower required to craft Terminator Armour were so great that retrofitting the whole of the existing Space Marine Legions with it was simply not feasible for the already thinly stretched logistics of the nascent Imperium of Man. Several patterns of Terminator Armour evolved in parallel from the Forge Worlds of the Mechanicum and the armouries of the Space Marine Legions. The Mechanicum refined their concept, and developed weapons specially adapted for it, like Combi-weapons and the Reaper Autocannon. Terminator Armour was then presented in limited numbers to the crusading Legions, who quickly found a use for them. Massively armoured, sealed against any hostile environmental conditions and incorporating their own heavy ranged or close combat armament, Terminator Armour designs soon proved their worth. Terminator Armour, with its ability to maximise the firepower and protection for a Space Marine, became standard on missions in extremely confined spaces like the corridors of a hive city, or during a boarding action on a Space Hulk where Dreadnoughts and armoured vehicles could not operate because they were too large to fit. Anecdotal evidence of the adaptability and willingness to embrace new weapons of warfare can be found in the Warmaster Horus' vocal backing of the Tactical Dreadnought Armour project, with the result that his Luna Wolves Legion was one of the first and most widely equipped with Terminator Armour and at the forefront of the development of tactics for its use in assaults. By the time the Horus Heresy erupted and the Arch-traitor Horus first struck a blow against the Emperor during the Istvaan III Atrocity, these heavily armoured suits had become widely available to the Space Marine Legions. Cataphractii Pattern Terminator Armour was one of the first issued Tactical Dreadnought Armour patterns. The Cataphractii suits were even more heavily protected than their contemporaries, with slab-like ceramite pauldrons housing additional shield generators. This design had the unfortunate side effect of overstraining the armour's exoskeleton and slowing the wearer dangerously. This difference led to the pattern's declining use with some Legions at the outbreak of the Horus Heresy and the shift to the use of the Indomitus Pattern most widespread among the Space Marine Chapters of the present 41st Millennium. Notable Variants *''Cataphractii Primus'' - The Cataphractii Primus represents the very earliest example of Cataphractii armour, modified from suits which were designed to survive inside operational plasma reactors. While one of these suits is retained by the Martian Mechanicum and another in the Legion's own Forge, the third is traditionally worn by a Sons of Horus assault captain who has risen through the ranks of the Justaerin Terminator elite, its superior power generation and transmission systems granting the wearer protection far above that of other patterns of Terminator armour. Sources *''The Horus Heresy - Book One: Betrayal'' (Forge World Series) by Alan Bligh, pg. 237 *''The Horus Heresy - Book Two: Massacre'' (Forge World Series) by Alan Bligh, pp. 49, 57, 61, 75, 102, 144, 228, 249 *''The Horus Heresy - Book Three: Extermination'' (Forge World Series) by Alan Bligh, pp. 70-71, 92, 119 *''The Horus Heresy - Book Four: Conquest'' (Forge World Series) by Alan Bligh, pp. 154, 227 *''The Horus Heresy - Book Five: Tempest'' (Forge World Series) by Alan Bligh, pp. 92-93, 112 *''The Horus Heresy - Book Six: Retribution'' (Forge World Series), pp. 24, 36-37, 73 *''The Horus Heresy - Book Seven: Inferno'' (Forge World Series) by Alan Bligh, pp. 23, 47, 53, 56, 165, 214, 229, 242, *''The Horus Heresy: Collected Visions'' (Artbook), pp. 33, 45, 52, 61-62, 65, 67, 78, 111-112, 138, 176, 189, 229, 235, 239-240, 243, 262-263, 274-275, 303, 352, 367 Gallery File:DA_Legionary_Primaris_2.jpg|Pre-Heresy Dark Angels Legionary-Primaris, 13th Chapter, 3rd Host (Terminator Assault Squad) Deathwing IW Legion Termi.jpg|A Pre-Heresy Iron Warriors Legion Tyranthikos or "Dominator" Veteran Legionary in Cataphractii Pattern Terminator Armour IW Tyrant Siege Termi.png|An Iron Warriors Tyrant Siege Terminator armed with a deadly carapace-mounted Cyclone Missile Launcher SW Varagyr Cataphract.jpg|A Pre-Heresy Space Wolves Varagyr Wolf Guard Terminator; the ornate decorations and ritual knotwork patterns have great ritual significance to the warriors of Fenris IF Termi.jpg|A Pre-Heresy Imperial Fists Terminator of the 12th Squad, 4th Company in Cataphractii Pattern Terminator Armour IF Vet Assault Termi.jpg|A Pre-Heresy Imperial Fists Veteran Assault Terminator of the 2nd Assault Echelon, 6th Company in Cataphractii Pattern Terminator Armour, outfitted with a Power Fist NL Cataphractii Terminator.jpg|Pre-Heresy Night Lords Veteran Astartes wearing Cataphractii Pattern Terminator Armour and armed with a Lightning Claw IH Legion Catii Termi Morlock.png|A Pre-Heresy Iron Hands Legion Morlock in Cataphractii Terminator Armour WE Legion Terminator.jpg|A Pre-Heresy World Eaters Devourer in Cataphractii Pattern Terminator Armour who served during the Great Crusade in the late 30th Millennium WE Red Butchers Terminator.jpg|One of the insane Red Butchers of the World Eaters Legion, wearing later-Heresy-era Cataphractii Pattern Terminator Armour; the former XII Legion iconography has been supplanted by the gore stains left by the blood of the enemy UM Legion Termi.jpg|Ultramarines Legion Terminator; the Raptor Imperialis honour on right knee designates a Unification Wars veteran UM Legion Termi 2.jpg|Ultramarines Legion Terminator; the laurel and skull icon indicating rank was conferred by the hand of a Legion Chapter Master; the marking on the left knee armour is a personal motif UM Fulmentarus Termis.jpg|An Ultramarines Legion Fulmentarus Terminator armed with a Cyclone Missile Launcher DG Grave Warden Termi.jpg|A Pre-Heresy Death Guard Grave Warden Terminator in modified Cataphractii Pattern Terminator Armour armed with a Power Fist and integrated Death Cloud chemical projector, its distinctive discharge stacks visible on the bearer's back Justaerin Termi Cataphractii.png|An elite Pre-Heresy Justaerin Veteran Astartes of the Sons of Horus Legion during the Horus Heresy wearing singularly-modified Cataphractii Pattern Terminator Armour WB Legion Company Cpt..jpg|Captain Nemur Ennat, 5th Heavy Assault Company, Serrated Suns Chapter of the Word Bearers Legion during the Horus Heresy, wearing Cataphractii Pattern Terminator Armour WB Termi2.jpg|A Word Bearers Astartes wearing Cataphractii Pattern Terminator Armour in the colours of the XVII Legion's Osseous Throne Chapter Salamanders Termi Legionary.jpg|A Pre-Heresy Salamanders Legionary of the Baal Auxiliary Defence Force, 7th Provisional Battalion, arrayed in Cataphractii Pattern Terminator Armour AL Termi Legion Strike Leader2.jpg|A Pre-Heresy Alpha Legion Terminator Strike Leader of the elite Lernaean Terminator Squads in Cataphractii Pattern Terminator Armour Invictus Terminator Squad.jpg|Space Marines of the Ultramarines Legion's Invictus Terminator Squad wearing Cataphractii Pattern Terminator Armour and utilising early-pattern Cyclone Missile Launchers during the Great Crusade EC pre-heresy terminators.jpg|The Emperor's Children Phoenix Guard in Cataphractii Pattern Terminator Armour during the Great Crusade Wolfguard heresyera2.jpg|Wolf Guard Terminators of the Space Wolves Legion in Cataphractii Pattern Terminator Armour during the Great Crusade Death Guard Giesolk Terminator Squad.jpg|The Death Guard Legion's Giesolk Terminator Squad during the Great Crusade in Cataphractii Pattern Terminator Armour Camillarus Cataphractii Termis.jpg|A trio of Alpha Legion Cataphractii Terminators in battle Sekhmet Terminator Squad.jpg|A Thousand Sons Sekhmet Terminator in Cataphractii Terminator Armour, bodyguard to Primarch Magnus the Red Sekhmet - Magnus' Bodyguard.jpg|Thousand Sons Primarch Magnus the Red with his elite honour guard, the Sekhmet, wearing Cataphractii Pattern Terminator Armour CustodesTerminator.jpg|A pair of Legio Custodes warriors wearing artificer Aquilon Pattern Terminator Armour during the Horus Heresy Legio Custodes Terminators 2.jpg|A squad of Legio Custodes Aquilon Terminators face the Traitor Legions of the Warmaster Horus during the Battle of Terra es:Armadura de Exterminador#Modelo Cataphractii Category:C Category:Chaos Category:Chaos Space Marines Category:Chaos Technology Category:Imperial Technology Category:Imperium Category:Space Marine Equipment Category:Space Marines